Bay Briefing: Is California a nation-state? Newsom’s health care proposals make it look like one

Governor-elect Gavin Newsom gives a fist bump to his son Hunter Newsom (left) ahead of taking the oath of office during his inauguration ceremony in Sacramento, California, on Monday, January 7th, 2019.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

As Gavin Newsom began his first speech as California governor on Monday, the distinction he drew wasn’t with other states, but with the Trump administration.

Newsom promised a “progressive, principled” administration that will counter “corruption and incompetence” in the White House. “It is up to us to renew the California dream for a new generation.” Newsom said, adding later: “The world is waiting on us.”

On Monday, Newsom signed an executive order that could make California the biggest single purchaser of prescription drugs in the country and promised budget proposals that include expanding Obamacare subsidies to middle-class families and offering Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented immigrants up to age 26.

Newsom also signed an executive order creating the post of California surgeon general, an official who will study the “root causes of serious health conditions.”

As Joe Garofoli writes, the health care moves are an early sign that Newsom will pursue large-scale ideas that treat California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, as a nation-state when Washington is too gridlocked to pass legislation.

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Taylor Kate Brown joined The San Francisco Chronicle in November 2018 as Newsletter Editor. She writes the morning Bay Briefing email and manages The Chronicle’s collection of newsletters.

She previously worked for BBC News for the website’s North American edition in Washington, DC, first as a staff writer and then as features producer and editor. Before the BBC she worked as a Local Editor for Patch in Maryland and earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She got her start in journalism at the Connecticut Post.